41:9 Even my close friend 4 whom I trusted,
he who shared meals with me, has turned against me. 5
2:20 The sun will be changed to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the great and glorious 36 day of the Lord comes.
2:21 And then 37 everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 38
1 tn Heb “men, sons of Belial.” The Hebrew term בְּלִיַּעַל (bÿliyya’al) has the idea of worthlessness, without morals or scruples (HALOT 133-34 s.v.). Cf. NAB, NRSV “scoundrels”; TEV, CEV “worthless people”; NLT “worthless rabble.”
2 tc The LXX and Tg read “your” for the MT’s “their.”
3 tn The translation understands the relative clause as a statement by Moses, not as part of the quotation from the evildoers. See also v. 2.
4 tn Heb “man of my peace.” The phrase here refers to one’s trusted friend (see Jer 38:22; Obad 7).
5 tn Heb “has made a heel great against me.” The precise meaning of this phrase, which appears only here, is uncertain.
6 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
7 tn Grk “The one sown on rocky ground, this is the one.” The next two statements like this one have this same syntactical structure.
8 tn Grk “is temporary.”
9 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
10 sn The rocky ground in Palestine would be a limestone base lying right under the soil.
11 tn Grk “it did not have enough depth of earth.”
12 tn Grk “it did not have root.”
13 tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
14 tn Grk “are temporary.”
15 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
16 sn This time of temporary faith represented by the description believe for a while is presented rather tragically in the passage. The seed does not get a chance to do all it can.
17 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
18 tn Traditionally, “temptation.” Such a translation puts the emphasis on temptation to sin rather than testing of faith, which is what the context seems to indicate.
19 sn Fall away. On the idea of falling away and the warnings against it, see 2 Tim 3:1; Heb 3:12; Jer 3:14; Dan 9:9.
20 tn Or “He cuts off.”
21 tn Or “does not yield.”
22 tn Grk “And he”; the conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has been omitted in the translation in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.
23 tn Or “trims”; Grk “cleanses” (a wordplay with “clean” in v. 3). Καθαίρει (kaqairei) is not the word one would have expected here, but it provides the transition from the vine imagery to the disciples – there is a wordplay (not reproducible in English) between αἴρει (airei) and καθαίρει in this verse. While the purpose of the Father in cleansing his people is clear, the precise means by which he does so is not immediately obvious. This will become clearer, however, in the following verse.
24 tn Or “that yields.”
25 tn Here BDAG 990-91 s.v. ταράσσω 2 states, “Of mental confusion caused by false teachings ταρ. τινά Ac 15:24 (w. λόγοις foll.).”
26 tn BDAG 71 s.v. ἀνασκευάζω describes this verb with a figurative meaning: “to cause inward distress, upset, unsettle.”
27 tn Grk “souls.”
28 tn Grk “by words”; L&N 25.231 translates the phrase “they troubled and upset you by what they said.”
29 tn Grk “from among yourselves.”
30 tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only rarely is used in a generic sense to refer to both males and females. Since Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders at this point and there is nothing in the context to suggest women were included in that group (“from among your own group”), it is most likely Paul was not predicting that these false teachers would include women.
31 tn Grk “speaking crooked things”; BDAG 237 s.v. διαστρέφω 2 has “λαλεῖν διεστραμμένα teach perversions (of the truth) Ac 20:30.”
32 tn BDAG 633 s.v. μέρος 1.b.γ gives the meanings “the parts (of a geographical area), region, district,” but the use of “district” in this context probably implies too much specificity.
33 tn Grk “and encouraging them with many words.” The participle παρακαλέσας (parakalesa", “encouraging”) has been translated by the phrase “spoken…words of encouragement” because the formal equivalent is awkward in contemporary English.
34 tn Grk “[to] them”; the referent (the believers there) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
35 tn In popular usage the term translated “Greece” here could also refer to the Roman province officially known as Achaia (BDAG 318 s.v. ῾Ελλάς).
36 tn Or “and wonderful.”
37 tn Grk “And it will be that.”
38 sn A quotation from Joel 2:28-32.
39 tn Grk “these are the ones who cause divisions.”
40 tn Or “natural,” that is, living on the level of instincts, not on a spiritual level (the same word occurs in 1 Cor 2:14 as a description of nonbelievers).
41 tn Grk “not having [the] Spirit.”